| General Non-Fiction posted March 1, 2023 |
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Non-fiction Rant about Various Scammers
Scammers Are More Than Scamps
by CrystieCookie999
I must admit that insidious scammers remind me of hordes of houseflies, buzzing and schmoozing to try to get access to assets they have no business touching. They also remind me of ravens, because of their invasive qualities, scrounging and culling skills, and their often abrasive tactics, which to my ears sound like the caws of those shameless birds.
Over the years, because of the jobs I have had, I have had to listen to foreign and domestic scammers PRETEND to be deaf, disabled, devoted, delirious with enthusiasm, or deserving of charity, as well as any number of professions, such as doctors, investment advisors, orphanage directors, newly bereaved family members trying to plan funerals and ordering outlandish items, customer service employees, IRS employees, sweepstakes announcers, family members supposedly in trouble and requesting financial assistance, FBI agents, and more. Some of them are guilty of elder abuse, where they take advantage of senior citizens who might be starting with early signs of senility, or even those who are still in possession of all their mental faculties. Many of them were guilty of credit card fraud.
But the scams that bug me the most are the love scams. I admit it, because I am a diehard romantic, that there is something particularly callous about love scams. Sometimes these scammers will use photos of a real person and commit what amounts to brazen identity theft on certain dating websites. No website appears immune from this. They may even have good grammar and excellent compliment skills. They are likely to start out with reasonably small requests, such as, "I need help paying for a prescription this month." Or perhaps they will say a family member needs help making rent, or their cell phone bill is past due. I hate people who are liars and cheats and out to twist what ought to be a promising friendship or romance into something that burns the individual involved to the degree that they may not trust people around them for months or even years. Love scam victims may be bilked out of so much money that they hold off on donating to people who really do deserve assistance.
It may be that I am more averse to love scammers because something similar happened to a family member. This dishonest individual pretended to be someone who cared about this family member, and she was a native English speaker, so all the grammar used in online communications and on the phone was believable. It ended up costing my relative thousands of dollars, so much so that he was not willing to admit how much was lost. I just know that much-needed repairs on the house he owns had to wait longer than usual, and he was extremely leery about dating anyone new while the bank was investigating this particular fraudster, who really had taken advantage of him and his ability to trust others.
I have heard of individuals who lost their house after being defrauded out of their life savings. I have heard of scammers pretending to be the opposite gender and copying and pasting dialogue from other people they have scammed before. In addition, I have heard of scammers obtaining remodeling work without paying the independent contractors with legitimate payment means, so that they could continue to commit scams with supposedly legal domiciles and addresses.
I must admit I feel prejudiced toward anyone calling me with a Washington D.C. area code now. For some reason Washington D.C. is rife with scammers, many pretending to award 'grants' from the government. Scammers do not respect the Do Not Call Registry, and they do not respect people saying "No, thank you" in general. Their tactics are generally high-pressure and filled with guilt-inducing phrases. They often do not respect the telemarketing hours that are required by law to fall within a certain range. Sometimes scammers in foreign countries have a mistaken belief that people in the United States (or other locations) are so wealthy, that supposedly anything they obtain by fraud doesn't hurt their intended victims. One person I listened to complained aloud that one of their victims only had a little over a hundred dollars or so in a checking account. The jobs I had required listening to specific phrases to identify what their motives were. Sometimes I could tell what a person was up to with a single sentence or a few words.
The second kind of scam that I hate is what might be called puppy scams or animal trafficking scams. It is terribly common to hear about people who are trying to sell or buy puppies (or any other animal) who hear from fraudsters, online or on the phone, who want to pay 'extra' for a pet, then have the animal shipped. No wonder more and more animal breeders insist on cash and local pick-up of animals. Between puppy scams and financial abuse scams of senior citizens, it is a tough decision to make on choosing which individual scammer is more self-centered.
With so many thousands of scammers active and persisting in their dishonest schemes, there is a real effect on the ability of banks to monitor and investigate scammers. Local law enforcement and FBI resources are also slammed hard by thousands of cases. Although the government won't admit it, it is also having an effect on inflation and business operating costs when products are obtained fraudulently and re-shipped to black markets and other countries.
It has occurred to me repeatedly that scammers don't even know what honesty and integrity mean. It's a black mark on their souls, and it's a pity that they persist in their efforts instead of trying something legitimate. Now I feel better.
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I must admit that insidious scammers remind me of hordes of houseflies, buzzing and schmoozing to try to get access to assets they have no business touching. They also remind me of ravens, because of their invasive qualities, scrounging and culling skills, and their often abrasive tactics, which to my ears sound like the caws of those shameless birds.
Over the years, because of the jobs I have had, I have had to listen to foreign and domestic scammers PRETEND to be deaf, disabled, devoted, delirious with enthusiasm, or deserving of charity, as well as any number of professions, such as doctors, investment advisors, orphanage directors, newly bereaved family members trying to plan funerals and ordering outlandish items, customer service employees, IRS employees, sweepstakes announcers, family members supposedly in trouble and requesting financial assistance, FBI agents, and more. Some of them are guilty of elder abuse, where they take advantage of senior citizens who might be starting with early signs of senility, or even those who are still in possession of all their mental faculties. Many of them were guilty of credit card fraud.
But the scams that bug me the most are the love scams. I admit it, because I am a diehard romantic, that there is something particularly callous about love scams. Sometimes these scammers will use photos of a real person and commit what amounts to brazen identity theft on certain dating websites. No website appears immune from this. They may even have good grammar and excellent compliment skills. They are likely to start out with reasonably small requests, such as, "I need help paying for a prescription this month." Or perhaps they will say a family member needs help making rent, or their cell phone bill is past due. I hate people who are liars and cheats and out to twist what ought to be a promising friendship or romance into something that burns the individual involved to the degree that they may not trust people around them for months or even years. Love scam victims may be bilked out of so much money that they hold off on donating to people who really do deserve assistance.
But the scams that bug me the most are the love scams. I admit it, because I am a diehard romantic, that there is something particularly callous about love scams. Sometimes these scammers will use photos of a real person and commit what amounts to brazen identity theft on certain dating websites. No website appears immune from this. They may even have good grammar and excellent compliment skills. They are likely to start out with reasonably small requests, such as, "I need help paying for a prescription this month." Or perhaps they will say a family member needs help making rent, or their cell phone bill is past due. I hate people who are liars and cheats and out to twist what ought to be a promising friendship or romance into something that burns the individual involved to the degree that they may not trust people around them for months or even years. Love scam victims may be bilked out of so much money that they hold off on donating to people who really do deserve assistance.
It may be that I am more averse to love scammers because something similar happened to a family member. This dishonest individual pretended to be someone who cared about this family member, and she was a native English speaker, so all the grammar used in online communications and on the phone was believable. It ended up costing my relative thousands of dollars, so much so that he was not willing to admit how much was lost. I just know that much-needed repairs on the house he owns had to wait longer than usual, and he was extremely leery about dating anyone new while the bank was investigating this particular fraudster, who really had taken advantage of him and his ability to trust others.
I have heard of individuals who lost their house after being defrauded out of their life savings. I have heard of scammers pretending to be the opposite gender and copying and pasting dialogue from other people they have scammed before. In addition, I have heard of scammers obtaining remodeling work without paying the independent contractors with legitimate payment means, so that they could continue to commit scams with supposedly legal domiciles and addresses.
I must admit I feel prejudiced toward anyone calling me with a Washington D.C. area code now. For some reason Washington D.C. is rife with scammers, many pretending to award 'grants' from the government. Scammers do not respect the Do Not Call Registry, and they do not respect people saying "No, thank you" in general. Their tactics are generally high-pressure and filled with guilt-inducing phrases. They often do not respect the telemarketing hours that are required by law to fall within a certain range. Sometimes scammers in foreign countries have a mistaken belief that people in the United States (or other locations) are so wealthy, that supposedly anything they obtain by fraud doesn't hurt their intended victims. One person I listened to complained aloud that one of their victims only had a little over a hundred dollars or so in a checking account. The jobs I had required listening to specific phrases to identify what their motives were. Sometimes I could tell what a person was up to with a single sentence or a few words.
The second kind of scam that I hate is what might be called puppy scams or animal trafficking scams. It is terribly common to hear about people who are trying to sell or buy puppies (or any other animal) who hear from fraudsters, online or on the phone, who want to pay 'extra' for a pet, then have the animal shipped. No wonder more and more animal breeders insist on cash and local pick-up of animals. Between puppy scams and financial abuse scams of senior citizens, it is a tough decision to make on choosing which individual scammer is more self-centered.
I must admit I feel prejudiced toward anyone calling me with a Washington D.C. area code now. For some reason Washington D.C. is rife with scammers, many pretending to award 'grants' from the government. Scammers do not respect the Do Not Call Registry, and they do not respect people saying "No, thank you" in general. Their tactics are generally high-pressure and filled with guilt-inducing phrases. They often do not respect the telemarketing hours that are required by law to fall within a certain range. Sometimes scammers in foreign countries have a mistaken belief that people in the United States (or other locations) are so wealthy, that supposedly anything they obtain by fraud doesn't hurt their intended victims. One person I listened to complained aloud that one of their victims only had a little over a hundred dollars or so in a checking account. The jobs I had required listening to specific phrases to identify what their motives were. Sometimes I could tell what a person was up to with a single sentence or a few words.
The second kind of scam that I hate is what might be called puppy scams or animal trafficking scams. It is terribly common to hear about people who are trying to sell or buy puppies (or any other animal) who hear from fraudsters, online or on the phone, who want to pay 'extra' for a pet, then have the animal shipped. No wonder more and more animal breeders insist on cash and local pick-up of animals. Between puppy scams and financial abuse scams of senior citizens, it is a tough decision to make on choosing which individual scammer is more self-centered.
With so many thousands of scammers active and persisting in their dishonest schemes, there is a real effect on the ability of banks to monitor and investigate scammers. Local law enforcement and FBI resources are also slammed hard by thousands of cases. Although the government won't admit it, it is also having an effect on inflation and business operating costs when products are obtained fraudulently and re-shipped to black markets and other countries.
It has occurred to me repeatedly that scammers don't even know what honesty and integrity mean. It's a black mark on their souls, and it's a pity that they persist in their efforts instead of trying something legitimate. Now I feel better.
 Recognized |
Although I cannot mention specific companies, I have worked off and on as a relay operator for the deaf and hard of hearing as well as a bank customer service employee.
Thanks to alaskapat for a really excellent photo of a raven. Come to think of it, ravens are more trustworthy than many humans.
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one point
and 2 member cents. Thanks to alaskapat for a really excellent photo of a raven. Come to think of it, ravens are more trustworthy than many humans.
Artwork by alaskapat at FanArtReview.com
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